


Celebrating Writers: Season 1 of Supernatural

by yourlibrarian



Series: Celebrating Writers [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Episode Review, Episode: s01e12 Faith, Episode: s01e14 Nightmare, Episode: s01e22 Devil's Trap, Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2016-05-07
Packaged: 2018-06-06 20:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6768754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I decided to do a brief discussion of the episodes I thought were most impressive from a writing standpoint. They're not necessarily the most significant, or my favorite episodes (as there are some more flawed stories I quite enjoyed) but I do think they're the best put-together.</p><p>So for S1 my three choices are:</p><p>Faith (Gamble and Tucker)<br/>Devil's Trap (Eric Kripke)<br/>Nightmare (Gamble and Tucker)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Celebrating Writers: Season 1 of Supernatural

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted November 26, 2007

I decided to do a brief discussion of the episodes I thought were most impressive from a writing standpoint. They're not necessarily the most significant, or my favorite episodes (as there are some more flawed stories I quite enjoyed) but I do think they're the best put-together.

So for S1 my three choices are:

Faith (Gamble and Tucker)  
Devil's Trap (Eric Kripke)  
Nightmare (Gamble and Tucker)

I actually am not that thrilled by most episodes in S1. In part this is because I find many to be formulaic. I know some people like the MotW focus but it doesn't generally lend itself to really strong stories. That's not to say that they couldn't be well written, merely that many have a Point A ==> Point B style with a few "brotherly moment" drop-ins. These episodes can still be watchable or fun for other reasons (execution is always important), but from a strictly writing standpoint they're clunky to me.

The three I've chosen break away from the formula in a few respects. In some ways I find "Faith" and "Nightmare" to be very similar, so it's interesting that they're penned by the same team. They're reversed in that Faith is all about Dean and Nigthmare is all about Sam. What's intriguing to me is how Faith rests upon Dean's tendency to sacrifice himself for others, and Nightmare focuses on Sam's fear that he's becoming a monster. In both cases they sell themselves short.

We never know, for example, the reason why Roy La Grange chose Dean, but he thinks he sees something about Dean's future missions. Here as in S3, Dean doesn't really see much reason for Sam to keep trying to save him, even though he's in a different emotional space then than now. Part of his efforts to close the case are, I think, to justify the fact that he was saved not only at the expense of someone else but at the cost of someone's life.

So the story seems particularly strong to me in three respects. First of all, the case is about Dean, one of our central characters, and reveals, possibly for the first time, Dean's self-esteem issues which end up being so critical in S2. It also reveals, most strongly, (particularly in light of the recent Asylum) that Sam is devoted to Dean, and also stubborn like his father. He is determined not to let Dean die, something which he displays again in IMToD, and which may help push John in S2 to sacrifice himself for Dean. So part of its purpose is to uncover these truths about the characters in ways that are displayed rather than discussed. The Reaper tale is actually secondary.

The second strength is that the MotW defies our expectations by being innocent. Reapers have a natural function to fulfill, and it is a human being who has interfered with this order. Sue Anne is in some ways a mirror for Sam. She not only loves and wishes to save her husband, but she is willing to go to extreme lengths to do so and she believes in his importance to others. The tantalizing (and unaddressed) question in the episode is whether Sam might have taken Dean to Roy even if he understood the cost. It's suggested he wouldn't, but given his behavior in S3, I'm not sure that's true. What we do know is that Sue Anne continues to use the Reaper for personal gain, something Sam sees as clearly wrong. The true evil in the episode is human, which really makes for a much better and more complex story.

The third strength of Faith is the larger philosophical underpinning of the episode. On a surface level there is a mystery, there is drama between the brothers, and there is dramatic tension. This is provided not just in the Reaper scenes but in others such as Dean's chase by the police, the tension about whether or not he could stop Layla from being healed, and the opening scene where Dean gets tasered. All of this would have been enough for a satisfying episode. But in the character of Layla, as well as Sue Anne, there are larger questions about destiny and belief, and the role of judgment of self and others. In many ways (including visually) this is a bleak episode and perhaps not one people want to watch repeatedly. But it does leave one with plenty to chew on.

By contrast Nightmare has some of the same elements. There is a mystery at the heart of it -- who or what is killing people. There is tension between the brothers about Sam's powers and what they mean. And then there is a larger question about destiny and responsibility. As with Faith, this is an episode about Sam and about how Dean is willing to stand by him, even though neither have any idea what Sam's abilities mean. I think the implications of what happens in this episode are fairly clearly traced to Sam's fears and behavior in S2 and his own choice not to kill Jake at the finale. I think we can also see here how much his father's final words to Dean shook him. Here Sam is afraid of what might be happening to him whereas in S2 he becomes just as fearful of what he might do to others. In S1 though we see a Sam who is still fairly sure of who he is, something which gets stripped away with both the demon's and John's messages about him. And here he still wants to help, not because it may mean something larger about him, but because he is horrified at what is happening.

Again as in Faith, the monster is human, especially if you see the monster as being not Max but his family. Unlike the Reaper, Max is not being forced into doing something unnatural to him, at least not in quite the same way. He has, however, been warped by his experience -- both in feeling powerless and terrified even while he holds enough power to control and terrify others -- as well as perhaps having his own sense of justice perverted by the injustice dealt to him since he was a child. The fact that when pushed to the breaking point Max ended up killing himself seems to point strongly to a sense of desperation rather than evil. The fact that it's debatable who or what was most at fault for the spiraling family tragedy is the mark of good writing.

Lastly, Sam's talk with Max and his own belief in the power of personal choice is shaken by a lingering belief that destiny holds some sway after all ("A little more tequila, a little less demon-hunting, and we would’ve had Max’s childhood. All things considered, we turned out okay—thanks to him."). This contrasts throughout with Dean's absolutism on actions rather than causes to measure evil, something which he doesn't entirely believe either. Again, the question we are left with at the end, where Dean offers himself as Sam's safety line, is whether or not one person can truly be responsible for another's actions -- for better or worse.

In between these bookends I chose "Devil's Trap." On the one hand, the episode isn't as self contained as many others because it follows so directly upon Salvation. However it has similar elements to Fatih and Nightmares in that it is strongly focused on the central characters, it has somewhat uncertain villains, and it raises deeper issues about what is actually the right course of action.

To begin with, the family ties here are strained to the breaking point. In the first two scenes we have Sam and Dean arguing about the best course of action -- save their father or pursue his mission. Of course later in the episode it's pretty clear which way John would have voted on that, but both missions conveniently dovetail when they both find their father AND the YED (literally). In fact though, it's Dean who wins out, refusing to let Sam sacrifice himself or their father.

However while Dean is quite firmly the moral center in this episode, he does some morally questionable things. Not only do his actions allow the YED to continue free (and thus to continue killing numerous other people in S2), but he himself kills innocent people by both forcing the demon from Meg and killing her brother with the Colt. His actions have justifications behind them -- leaving Meg possessed isn't much of an option and she is indeed grateful to be released. And Sam probably would have died if not for Dean. But he himself takes a moment later to recognize how little right and wrong had to do with his decisions at the time. Rather different from the young man willing to sacrifice himself for a near stranger in Faith and who was guilt stricken about being given a second chance through someone else's murder.

While the villains are still villains in the episode, they are given metaphorical human underpinnings. Meg is revealed to be human after all (as Bobby reminds us and Dean), a frightened girl beneath the demon. The YED has family ties and acts out the Winchester family dynamics in the cabin scene. As at least one meta I've seen pointed out, it is fascinating that when their father is found for the last time in a season whose main arc was all about unraveling the mystery of their father and the demon, the two are one and the same. (Of course, I would have been more impressed by this, had this been the decision all along rather than something the writers eventually stumbled upon). The symbolism rather perfectly sums up the truth about their lives, where "destiny" rests in personal choice as much as happenstance, and a parent remains in many ways a mystery to the end.

What this episode has that's hard to beat in any other episode in S1 (or even S2) is the level of drama. Sam and Dean being at odds from the first scene, and Sam and his father still arguing in the very last one creates a lot of tension, especially since these are fundamental arguments they have been having (in one way or another) their whole lives. The exorcism scene, the rescue of John, the cabin confrontation, and the stunning ending to the season (which, in my book, ranks right up there with any other season ending you can think of) all carry this tension throughout the episode. And none of this is running around or fighting just for the sake of having people flailing on screen. It is all going very purposefully in a certain direction. 

For example, the fact that we start with Sam and Dean at odds over what should be prioritized in their next move ends up being joined in the body of John. I think (again) this metaphor is so wonderful because John is where Sam and Dean are joined, literally. The fact that he's their father is what ties them to one another at a biological level. The polarity of John's role and how they see that is one that separates them on a philosophical one. The very aspects of John's nature are split between them. Yet in the end what's revealed in this episode is that they have prioritized one another, even above John. Dean defies his father and "wastes a bullet" to save Sam. Sam defies John and saves a bullet for Dean. In both cases I think they feared losing one another, even though that outcome wasn't certain. They had, as Sam will later say in IMToD, learned to become brothers. The next time he pulls the Colt it will be to protect his family, not to take revenge. Sam has found his father in himself, just as Dean has found his faith redeemed in his father's valiant and successful effort to save his life. The season arc is complete.


End file.
